Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier

When 16 year old Joseph Donaldson announced to his parents in 1809 that he had joined the army, they were understandably horrified, given the bleak and uncertain prospects facing a soldier at the time. Fortunately for his parents, and for us, Donaldson returned safe and sound from the Napoleonic Wars and soon put pen to paper to record his glorious (and not-so-glorious) adventures. His wonderfully graphic, gripping and often poignant memoir is completely reproduced in this volume for the first t